April 13, 2008
My epitaph
I am delighted by this comment from “Paskalis” (a relative newcomer to the blog). So much so that I am lifting it out of the comments section on the Georgia post and giving it its very own entry.
I feel it would serve as an excellent epitaph for me. If there is not enough room on my tombstone for the entire comment, then I would accept just the second sentence:
“Your comments and insights are thoughtful, insightful and intelligent and have as much weight as a ripe banana on this planet of the apes.
“You have turned geopolitics into a parlour game for the enfeebled while the men are in another room smoking their cigars.”
.
Well , this blog is about international news , a specie of entertainment with some pretense at proper spelling .
Not being a cigar smoker or god forbid too feeble yet , I will take the former option , delighting in a tasty banana !
PS : the audio security feature is akin to a mumbling Oklahoma born employee , operating the public address from Sydney central station !
.
Posted by: jeannick | April 14th, 2008 at 1:13 am | Report this commentI was a bit baffled by this comment when I first read it, but I think I now see its literary merit: with a light touch and just two sentences, it obliquely paints a lazy Jazz age image (from the quintessential period of realpolitik) which it nonchalantly juxtaposes with Douglas Adams.
I see why your picture is smiling.
Posted by: RCS | April 14th, 2008 at 1:26 am | Report this commentWell I like the idea of being the ripe banana! …with all the apes in their geopolitical jungle beating their chests and fighting to have me!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | April 14th, 2008 at 2:18 am | Report this commentAny insights on how the enfeebled can pack up their game, storm the enjoining room and nab the cigars off those preening, jawing men?
Posted by: David | April 14th, 2008 at 10:36 am | Report this commentRudyard would be pleased.
Posted by: Tom | April 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm | Report this commentularly
Posted by: Pacifist | April 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm | Report this commentAs someone said “everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die”, so I guess everyone likes a nice epitaph although nobody likes to die!
Posted by: Pacifist | April 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm | Report this commentMy comment, as subjectively and variably interpreted as Holy Writ (Like all of you, I am, after all, a son of the Creator), is meant to point out that the essence of human relationship does nor differ at all from the politics of our simian fathers. That is to say, there is no politics at all except for the spin - poetic, artistic, academic or journalistic - that follows the consequence of brute force. Show me that it is not brute force that governs our world and determines our policies and that the minstrels and clowns are not sent in to tickle the perpetrators, condemn the victims and distract the rabble.
PS. Of course, it fits in that when the house is on fire, the man in the attic is quibbling about spelling, whether it’s the “e” before “i” or the “i” before “e.”
Posted by: Paskalis | April 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm | Report this comment‘there is no politics at all except for the spin - poetic, artistic, academic or journalistic - that follows the consequence of brute force. Show me that it is not brute force that governs our world and determines our policies and that the minstrels and clowns are not sent in to tickle the perpetrators, condemn the victims and distract the rabble.’
So true Paskalis, so true. I couldn’t have said it better.
FT, this is worthy of being printed.
Inevitably, we would have more minstrels and clowns tackling the quote.
Posted by: Chika Chukwujekwu | April 14th, 2008 at 3:10 pm | Report this commentPaskalis suggests that poetry, art, scholarship and journalism are all just spin put on brute force. A more optimistic view is that brute force these days is a mere servant of journalism, scholarship, art, poetry and, above all, politics. After all, not many elections these days are won by brute force. But those who win elections can pass laws, and if you disobey those laws then the brute force of the police will be used against you.
Fascinating, thought-provoking thoughts and images from Paskalis. Though for some reason they make me think of a famous quotation from Eric Cantona: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”
Posted by: M | April 14th, 2008 at 3:40 pm | Report this commentPaskalis suggests that poetry, art, scholarship and journalism are all just spin put on brute force. A more optimistic view is that brute force these days is a mere servant of journalism, scholarship, art, poetry and, above all, politics. After all, not many elections these days are won by brute force. But those who win elections can pass laws, and if you disobey those laws then the brute force of the police will be used against you.
Posted by: M | April 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm | Report this commentGood stuff,
Posted by: tim | April 14th, 2008 at 4:50 pm | Report this commentBut I prefer plain succinct Shakespeare: “but often times to win us to their hearts the instruments of darkness tell us truths…”
Paskalis view of politics:reductionist…but very funny. And pols. are so often (unintentionally) hilarious.
I’m not so sure about using it as an epitaph.
Posted by: MaryCunningham | April 14th, 2008 at 5:39 pm | Report this commentGR - as a Cambridge man you deserve something classic, imo. Have you ever been to Delphi?
Posted by: J.J. | April 14th, 2008 at 5:53 pm | Report this commentHow about one of the inscriptions on the temple of Apollo at Delphi:
Mithen agan (Nothing in excess).
Alternatively, if you have feet of clay:
Gnothi seafton (Know thyself).
i am puzzled by the weight of the ripe banana on the planet of the apes. what does it mean?
Posted by: OJ | April 14th, 2008 at 6:04 pm | Report this commentis gravity different there? is it that it won’t survive long and be devoured? or is it that nothing would be more prized than sweet tubular fruit in a simian world?
Maybe it’s just too gushy to eat. I don’t much like bananas unlike my simian ancestors.
I did, however, inherit from them a fear of snakes. Considering my more immediate predecessors lived in Ireland for some 8,000 years or so I would consider that an impressive feat of staying power.
(To all here that are non-inhabitants of Brittania, there are no snakes in Ireland. St Patrick supposedly drove them out but not until AD400 so maybe I picked up my fear from the snakes that existed before the good man–surely a Roman but of the Western variety not the Byzantine type–banished them, in which case it is not such a great example of staying power.)
Posted by: MaryCunningham | April 14th, 2008 at 6:15 pm | Report this commentThe was another inscription in sacred Delphi: the letter “E”. It too would make a good epigraph. Any good Cambridge man (Cambridge, Indiana?) ruminating over his banana should be able to tell us what it stood for.
Posted by: Paskalis | April 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm | Report this commentDear Paskalis,
You must accept there will be many interpretations of your comment; your images will resonate differently with each new reader. Some of these will be more profound than those you yourself had in mind, that is the mysterium cosmicum of poetry. The poet is a vessel of our feelings and our thoughts; his own thoughts form only a part of these.
Posted by: RCS | April 14th, 2008 at 7:43 pm | Report this commentWisely said, RCS. I didn’t, however, expect the words “weight” and “banana” to cause such linguistic confusion and intellectual distress.
Posted by: Paskalis | April 14th, 2008 at 7:55 pm | Report this commentOdd, isn’t it, that whilst a love of bananas perishes, the fear of snakes persists?
Certainly something to ponder…maybe even an epitaph.
Posted by: MaryCunningham | April 14th, 2008 at 8:04 pm | Report this commentObviously, Mary, you have no first-hand knowledge of the crippling effects of bananaphobia. May it always be so.
But surely you must have noticed that all American airlines have stopped serving bananas on transatlantic flights?
Posted by: Paskalis | April 14th, 2008 at 8:14 pm | Report this comment.
Saint Cantonna quote was refering to U.K.tabloid journalists as seagulls following trawlers for spilled guts .
My interest in spelling is akin to interest in a vague aquaintance I wish I knew more about .
” the man in the attic ” please me no end
As for jesting,I have some experience of violence,give me a jest any day .
Posted by: jeannick | April 14th, 2008 at 11:09 pm | Report this commentI note your use of the word apes while others slide to gorillas …a quite peaceful sub specie , ours is far far worst .
Paskalis has said in his new comment here what he meant.
When there is a fight for scarce resources, and tehre always be a fight for resources, any idea can be used to justify the use of force…
British used the “White Man´s Burden” to justify the exploitation of over half a billion people around the World under a racist Dictatorship.
Hitler tried to imitate the British with the idea of the “Aryans”, more excluding even than “whites” because the German envisioned territorial expansion was not directed against native americans, native australians, indians or whatever (color people) but against other white tribes (slavs) in Eastern Europe.
Now as time has passed Americans also find another justification invading in the name of democracy. So they attack and invade one nation after another because they know better what the invaded nation deserves. “Well”, they say, “they were not democrats like us so we had to attack and kill them”. But the real reason is, always, the use of brute force to impose conditions and manage resources….and any guy (intellectual) can write the reasons (a book, an essay) to justify the attack.
Posted by: Enrique | April 14th, 2008 at 11:56 pm | Report this commentEnfeebled bananas unite, you have nothing to lose but your sticky, stringy things and that other inedible bit at the end!
Posted by: David Seaton | April 15th, 2008 at 8:08 am | Report this commenthttp://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/
Taking part in this exchange makes me think that everyone who has ever sent or received an email, who has ever written or accepted a letter, who has ever uttered or heard a word, or who has ever made or observed a gesture ( and that must include quite a few people) should be struck at how misunderstanding is an inevitable result of all human attempts at communication. Thank God this misunderstanding does not take place in national and international relations because if it did, our species could well have been on the road to extinction.
Posted by: Paskalis | April 15th, 2008 at 8:15 am | Report this commentPaskalis, I have not noticed the absence of bananas from said flights.
Perhaps they are proscribed as weapons.
And, unlike you, I am optimistic about communication by our species. I do believe gestures combined with facial expressions indicate animosity or amorisity (a word?) & hence are extremely accurate indications of odium or caritas respectively.
This has been so pleasurable, Paskalis! Right now I begin a journey from East London–I’m leaving 10 hours in advance as I’m departing from Terminal 5–so I will say goodbye.
Posted by: MaryCunningham | April 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am | Report this commentPaschalis: On April 14 1204 Constantinopolis was sacked — during the 4th crusade– by the crusaders.
If you can call Con/polis a “banana” then you get the essence of the politics (and war) against the east ever since.
By the time the Ottomans came around in the middle of he 15th Century Byzantium was comatose.
Unfortunately DANDOLO’S anger and Greed is still around.
Posted by: Cassandra | April 15th, 2008 at 9:36 am | Report this commentI’m intrigued to see so much interest in what is mistakenly considered to be an obscure historical period. It is, of course, as obscure as tomorrow’s headlines. I used to tell my students that it is not history that repeats itself. It is human behaviour that does.
It’s interesting that we spend billions of dollars to peer into space and try to understand our distant past, and that with a two-dollar shovel we cut into centuries of dried earth to discover our future.
The gentlemen of the fourth crusade had given up trying to breach the impregnable walls of Constantinople when Enrico Dandalo, the Doge of Venice, rallied them for one more try, and they smashed through and sacked the city. He was over 90 years old at the time.
In his honour, the “Franks” laid his body to rest in St. Sophia, the greatest church of its day and the central symbol of the conquered empire.
When the Greeks re-conquered The City, they dug up Dandalo’s bones and fed them to the dogs.
Not for the last time, there appears to have been a difference of opinion.
Posted by: Paskalis | April 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am | Report this commentM: “Paskalis suggests that poetry, art, scholarship and journalism are all just spin put on brute force. A more optimistic view is that brute force these days is a mere servant of journalism, scholarship, art, poetry and, above all, politics.”
Brute force (ie war), as Clausewitz observed, is merely the extension of politics by other means. What more needs said?
BTW, I think Woody Allen had the last word on Bananas.
Posted by: AYC | April 18th, 2008 at 3:45 pm | Report this comment